New surgery on Freddy Sanchez’s shoulder, but he should be ready for Opening Day

No trade or signing news on the Giants front, but some big news nonetheless: Second baseman Freddy Sanchez had arthroscopic surgery on his non-throwing left shoulder Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz., to correct problems he began incurring near the end of the regular season and during the postseason. The Giants thought the issues could be corrected through rest and rehab, but it wasn’t improving fast enough for either Sanchez or the Giants to head into the 2011 season, so Sanchez elected to have the surgery.

Formally, Sanchez had a bicep tenotomy, which is essentially a surgical equivalent of what Edgar Renteria did in the playoffs against Atlanta when he tore his bicep away from the tendon making a swing in a game, which provided more relief from pain.

“We tried to rehab for 3-4 weeks to avoid this but after several different opinions we decided, especially with the calendar, to go ahead and scope the shoulder,” said Giants trainer Dave Groeschner.

Basically, they cut his bicep tendon and cleaned up the back of his shoulder,” Groeschner added. “He had no repairs or anything. We’re probably looking at an eight-week recovery. I think he’ll be behind in spring training because he’ll be rehabbing, but I think all the doctors he saw agreed that he should be backing pretty quickly from there and he’ll be able to play baseball games in March, for sure.”

Sanchez had three different opinions on the shoulder, including two orthopedists the Giants work with and an independent one in Los Angeles. Dr. Gary Waslewski, son of the former major-league pitcher by the same name, performed the 30-minute procedure.

“It’s always a concern when you have to do surgery for a second time on the same body part, but I think talking with the doctor after the surgery, he was pretty pleased with the results,” said Groeschner.

“This is something we planned,” the trainer continued. “If we had more time and we didn’t play the whole month of November we could have given him some more time for treatment and rehab. But we don’t, so we had to do something and Freddy was on board. He just wants to get better and be ready for the start of the season.”

The Giants aren’t sure how the injury might have occurred.

“It’s just something that got worse the last couple weeks of the postseason and we were kind of hoping with some rest and rehab it would get better, but it just never got to that point,” Groeschner said. “It was feeling better, but if you put a bat in your hand and make a thousand swings every week, we weren’t comfortable and he wasn’t comfortable of wanting to go into spring training that way. He wants to be healthy and feel good so he can play at a high level.

And now the good news: Sanchez’s right shoulder was also bothering him at the end of the year, but no problems there.

“That’s doing well,” Groeschner said. “Honestly, we had that checked out well and that’s doing fine. He did injure his shoulder but it’s something that healed up and it’s doing well.”

General manager Brian Sabean didn’t sound concerned that the surgery would provide much of a setback to the club, because he believes Sanchez will be ready, and even if he isn’t, he’ll have Mark De Rosa and Mike Fontenot as options at the position “so we have enough protection.”

Updated: Since someone posted a comment below about Dan Runzler, I’ll toot my own horn a little here and note that I asked the question about Runzler, if only to see what Sabean had to say about him based on a tidbit of info from a source outside the Giants I’d heard earlier in the day that the club might be grooming him for the No. 5 spot in the rotation because they were going to make every effort to move Barry Zito at some point, even if they had to take on a significant chunk of his salary.

I doubted the information that was told to me for a couple of reasons. First, if you’re still taking on most of the salary in any type of hypothetical deal, you might as well hold on to Zito because he’s a perfectly capable fifth starter. If nothing else, his durability makes him an asset in case one of the top four goes down. I sincerely doubt the Giants are thinking about such a strategy because the machinations of such a deal would be enormous and what would they gain but just a little payroll relief?

Second, Runzler was supposed to go to the Arizona Fall League and work on stretching out his innings, but got there so late that the plan Sabean and the organization had for him didn’t come to fruition. The hope now appears to be that they’ll try to stretch him out in spring training and make him a potential long man, which is probably his best chance at making the club. Sabean said flatly that it would serve no purpose to send him down — he’s a major-league quality pitcher. He’s also insurance in case a starter gets injured. It bears watching how he develops, because he has a plus-arm and tremendous potential as a starter or reliever.

Maybe if Zito had just two years left on his deal instead of three, the scenario that was passed on to me would be a little more believable. It came from a credible source, but it may be more wishful thinking on the person who told my source than anything. In any case, I would have posted this info in the original blog entry but I needed to file a story on Sanchez for the daily newspaper and it took precedent, so it had to wait until now.

By the way, Sabean also noted that he’s optimistic about Edgar Renteria returning based on the signals he’s getting from Edgar’s representation, but the GM advised that financially, it would only work under a “Burrell-type scenario.” In short, they want him and he seems to want them, but it’s going to have to be an exceedingly cheap price. Renteria’s agents will no doubt check out all of the other potential options first which may or may not deliver him a bit more money. Stay tuned.

42 Comments

Sanchez finally did what the Giants thought when they got him from the Pirates. Remarkably his intangibles seem to propel Freddie to even greater fan satisfaction.
Whether being interviews hundreds of times, he seems like the same lunch pail – blue collar guy that we all love in him and others who had us all waving towels throughout 2010.
It’s still amazing to remember that we needed the 162nd game to secure our outright post season journey. Then it was Atlanta/ Phillies and Texas and the WS Championship Trophy…and the parade.

LAKE BUENTA VISTA, Fla. — The Giants on Tuesday said they expect to make a decision on Wednesday that could dramatically change the career path of left-hander Dan Runzler.
Runzler, 25, who posted a 3.05 ERA in 41 games out of the bullpen in 2010, might head to camp in February as a starting pitcher-in-training.
Giants general manager Brian Sabean, speaking to Bay Area reporters Tuesday night during Day Two of baseball’s annual winter meetings, stopped short of saying Runzler could compete for a spot in the 2011 rotation, however. Rather, he’d be stretched out in an effort to make him a viable candidate to serve as San Francisco’s long reliever and insurance in the event that one of the current starters suffers an injury.

I hope Freddy Sanchez gets healthy & has a great last season with the GIANTS because although I love his skillset, heart & glove there is now possible way you can resign a player that fragile. I sware he gets hurt every game, limps around & then shakes it off while making those spaz faces. The GIANTS 2011 season depends on their health just as the rest of the teams in the MLB, so let’s hope Freddy doesn’t have any setbacks.

It was their stalling on surgery last year, hoping that rest would work that forced them to reach out late and get Juan Uribe, who they had let go and weren’t going to re-sign; paniced because they realized too late that they had zero 2nd baseman to start the season.

The first of many dungheaps they fell in last season that came out smelling of roses.

Real good roses.

A healthy Freddie Sanchez is a very nice player to have, but “healthy” is not a word used to describe him much.

Freddy Sanchez has injury after injury but I don’t think he had any physical history with Pittsburg. Because of his work ethic, I think we look at him differently than say….ugh Chris Brown our infamous 3rd baseman from the inglorious 80’s.
@ Mike Souza, most (not all) 2baseman would have never made it back with his disturbing injuries… (Remember the relay throw that he fielded and turned and threw harmlessly too home plate…on film none of us saw anything wrong but he had a knee almost blow out. I know YOU don’t want any setbacks and neither does Sanchez. As you know he is a game to the “Nth” degree so I personally will give him a pass until, like you said…we know for Sure. Freddie makes Ray Durham a far away memory…likewise with Frandsen and Rennie Stennett (thank you Spec Richardson.

@ Mike Souza, most (not all) 2baseman would have never made it back with his disturbing injuries… (Remember the relay throw that he fielded and turned and threw harmlessly too home plate…on film none of us saw anything wrong but he had a knee almost blow out. I know YOU don’t want any setbacks and neither does Sanchez. As you know he is a game to the “Nth” degree so I personally will give him a pass until, like you said…we know for Sure. Freddie makes Ray Durham a far away memory…likewise with Frandsen and Rennie Stennett (thank you Spec Richardson.
Freddy Sanchez has injury after injury but I don’t think he had any physical history with Pittsburg. Because of his work ethic, I think we look at him differently than say….ugh Chris Brown our infamous 3rd baseman from the inglorious 80’s.

Thanks so much Carl for that info on Runzler, I find it very interesting and would ask the same question as @its messy, are they setting them selves up to potentially move Sanchez if the plan comes to fruition as Sabean imagines

A quick note on Zito: his one true asset (health/IP) is actually a liability starting in 2011. His 8th year option will vest if any of the following occur:

600 IP (2011-2013)
400 IP (2012-2013)
200 IP (2013)

No matter how capable of a 5th starter Zito is, I doubt the Giants want to be paying another year at $20 million if it can be avoided. As soon as I heard Runzler was potentially being groomed as a starter, this wrinkle in Zito’s contract popped into my mind. I think they’ll do anything needed to keep that option from vesting (especially because we will owe him $7 million to buy out that year). Once you look at the nuts and bolts, you realize that this is easily the most poorly negotiated contract from a team’s perspective.

Wild thought, but the Giants might be a good fit for Grienke. A package of J Sanchez, Pablo and a couple prospects NOT named Belt or Wheeler might be very attractive. Just dreaming, because it would mean taking on probably $7 mil in additional net payroll. But, what a dream. And, SF would be a great fit for a guy who needs to find the right market for his condition.

Now, consider having to face Timmy, Cainer, Grienke and MadBum in the post season.

@ Mike Souza
Freddy Sanchez has had injury after injury but I don’t think he had any physical history with Pittsburg. Because of his work ethic, I think we look at him differently than say….ugh Chris Brown our infamous 3rd baseman from the inglorious 80’s.
Most (not all) 2baseman would have never made it back with his disturbing injuries… (Remember the relay throw that he fielded and turned and threw harmlessly too home plate…on film none of us saw anything wrong but he had a knee almost blow out. I know YOU don’t want any setbacks and neither does Sanchez. As you know he is a game to the “Nth” degree so I personally will give him a pass until, like you said…we know for Sure. Freddie makes Ray Durham a far away memory…likewise with Frandsen and Rennie Stennett (thank you Spec Richardson.)

Long relievers usually aren’t any good. Runzler is good, and will just be 26 next year. If he’s the longman to start 2011 we’re in pretty good shape.

But he’ll be just 26. He has less than 200 innings of pro ball. Why not let him get some time in AAA and work on his command next year? Lopez, Romo and Affedlt are all tough on lefties, and there’s Brian Wilson and a new Santiago Casilla vying for innings. It’s not like the low-leverage innings that Runzler gets in the first few months of the season are going to make or break the season. His ceiling is as a dominant late-inning reliever, or maybe a decent lefty starter. Maybe some more seasoning will help him get his ML-walk BB/9 under 5 and get closer to that potential.

A 6th starter type would be great to have, we have a workhorse rotation but they all (other than Zeets) threw their career highs last year.

@ Souza – Freddie Sanchez has no bad prior injury history with the Pirates. IMO – he will be okay and stay and become an all time fan favorite. Funny comment (Spaz faces) – that’s Freddie being Freddie.

@ClutchUp -Comment#21- That is not true on his previous injury history. He had a serious back injury & other ailments with the Pirates. He was hurt when the GIANTS traded for him remember? I am not bashing him & appreciate what he brings to the team, but I want no part of him getting an extension with the GIANTS unless it is for the 2012 season only, after his current deal expires.

Many thanks. I knew he was damaged goods at the time of the trade, but did not know of any physical problems he had prior. If he has a nice year in 2011 and is physically fit (100%) – do you give up on him in 2012?

@ClutchUp- Comment#25- I say if he is re-signed it is only for a one year deal with a team option. My hope is for Charlie Culberson or Nick Noonan to force the issue by becoming Major League ready after this season which makes resigning F. Sanchez a choice that is less stressful for our front office. It looks as if Noonan might never pan out as the Chase Utley style hitter he was classified as coming out of High School, but Culberson is looking like a very talented hitter who is on the right track. If Sabean sticks to his new style of signing vets to 1-2 year/reasonable deals nobody has a right to complain unless those vets are blocking a proven minor leaguer who seems to be major league ready that needs to be given a shot. As of right now Sabean hasn’t done that because Branden Belt is not blocked in LF where Sabean said he can play if he makes the roster in Spring Training or joins the team midseason & then become our 1B full time after Huff leaves in a couple years. I am pumped up by our minor league talent & the long term future of our organazation just as much as I am for our World Series title. Mr. Sabean & Mr. Bochy made me eat crow & it was the best thing I have ever eaten in all of my life! 😉

Freddie should be better this year with spring training and a full season. Sign him for another year or two if he stays healthy all year and plays well and depending on Culberson’s development. I like Runzler beginning the season in long relief, not much pressure or overwork and he can develop, gain control hopefully, and be ready for any role needed.

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